SUIT UP:: TAKE UP YOUR WEAPON

Sermon Notes, November 4, 2018

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

Pastor Garry concluded his sermon series about the armor of God, based on Ephesians 6:10-20.  The title of today’s sermon was “Suit Up: Take Up Your Weapon,” which is the Sword of the Spirit.  We’ve learned about the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the shoes of the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace, the Shield of Faith, and the Helmet of Salvation.  Today we will find out about the Sword of the Spirit.

In the book of John Jesus was preparing His disciples for His imminent departure.  He told them, “Don’t worry, God is sending something better.  God is sending His Spirit, and His Spirit will be with you always.”   Sometimes we feel like we’re all alone in our struggles, but like the “Footprints” poster, when we see only one set of prints, God is carrying us.

This is the the first mostly offensive weapon we’ve talked about in our study of the armor of God.  When learning about sword fighting, or boxing, we find that we learn how to defend ourselves before we learn to attack.  The same is true with Spiritual warfare.  There are books that have lists of all the scriptures you need to deal with almost any life situation.  God has given us His full Word, His instruction manual, His how-to, His “You got a problem? Here’s where you go” to the Bible.  The problem is that we go into the fix-it mode.  We want to fix it on our own, and this pulls us away from our “sword;” we put away God’s Word.  Sooner or later, we realize we can’t do it on our own. 

But Jesus said that He is sending the Advocate. Advocate is a good word for the Holy Spirit.  An advocate is someone who sticks up for you, someone who helps you.  If we are going to stand up against the devil’s attacks, if we are going to overcome affliction in this world, win the battle, bring people into the family of God, we need to learn how to use our sword. The first part is to learn how to defend ourselves.  The way we defend ourselves is to read our Bibles.  We can’t even understand what God is about until we start reading our Bibles.  The neat thing about the Bible is that every time we read it, we learn something new.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.  He interprets the Word for us.  When we read the Holy Scriptures, we get confirmation about what God is calling us to do. We are able to find our purpose in life. The more we read it the more opportunity we have to solve problems in our everyday life. 

We learn this defense by setting up a time to read the Word and talk to God every day. Multiple times.  The more we meditate on His Word, and the more we talk to Him in prayer, the more we find ourselves using God’s Word against the devil’s attacks, like Jesus did in the wilderness at the beginning of His public ministry.  God’s Word is a defense against the devil, but it is also an offense, to get us out of our comfort zone to do what He has called us to do.  If we don’t get our swords out, read our Bibles, we won’t grow as Christians—we’ll just sit right here and miss all the blessings God has for us.